Greek Food
Sardeles Pastes
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As I have discovered, sardeles pastes are seasonal. In July and August the sardines are generally the perfect size. If they are too big it may take two days before they are ready to be eaten. Visitors who come in September and October may have a hard time finding them at all. Even in July and August they won't be served in every cafeneon though most of the restaurants in Kaloni, Eressos and Molyvos will have them.
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Step 1: Hold
the fish body between the forefinger and thumb of your left hand (if you are right-handed).
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For more on sardelles pastes read my True Life Stories of Eating Sardeles Pastes For information on Lesvos where eating sardeles pastes is a way of life see www.lesvos.com |
The snack of choice with ouzo is Sardeles Pastes. These are the sardines
that have been caught that morning, salted on the boat and served that night. To eat them the skin is removed and
they are seasoned with oil, lemon or whatever your host prefers to season them with (though some eat them totally
unseasoned.) Sardeles Pastes are not a treat for everyone, but I am certainly a convert to them, so much so that
I have written a book about it called IN SEARCH OF SARDELES PASTES which is part of my major work 
Occasionally a truck will come by with fresh sardines and the fish
merchant will make the sardeles pastes right there before your eyes. First he lays down a layer of course sea salt
and then a layer of sardines packed together on their sides. He alternates sardines with salt. The top layer is
salt. Sometimes his hands work so fast it is like watching a magician. Some of the restaurants buy their pastes
from the trucks but many make their own and each claims to have the best pastes in town. The technique is generally
the same though there are variations that some pastones claim make theirs better, more firm, more tender or tastier.
For example the pastes at the restaurant Arion in Skala Eressos are completely different from the pastes served
in the cafeneon down the beach. The cook told me his technique is to lay the fish with their bellies up. While in the more populated towns like Mytilini, Kaloni, Eressos and
Molyvos sardeles pastes are a regular feature on the summer menu, in the small village cafeneons they are considered
a treat and not served every day. In the village of Vatousa a rumor that Michalis is serving sardeles pastes at his cafeneon across
the street is enough to make us jump up from our table at Tryphon's leaving half filled glasses of ouzo and half
eaten plates of delicious food behind.
Eating sardeles pastes is easily mastered especially when the cafe
owner has done most of the work for you before hand. But on occasion you might find yourself staring at a plate
of salt covered whole fish with no idea of what to do. This can happen in places like Agiassos where the sardines
are sold by street vendors who will just hand you a quarter of a kilo of uncleaned sardeles wrapped in paper, assuming
you know what to do with them, or if you buy them from a fish market in Mytilini or from a truck, or you have salted them yourself. There is no cause for panic because the technique is simple and easily mastered. Once you learn how to do it you can buy your own with confidence and eat them on your hotel balcony watching the sunset and stinking up the room for the next guests.
In most cases this process will have been done for you by the cafe
owner or his wife or mother in the kitchen and your first contact with sardeles pastes they will not look
unlike giant skinless anchovies. In this case the only thing you have to worry about is how to eat them which can
also be tricky if you are not familiar with one or two of the techniques. The first is what I call the 'Tom and
Jerry technique'. If you remember back to your cartoon watching days how when a cat would eat a fish he would drop
it into his mouth while holding on to the tail and pull out a skeleton, then you have a very clear picture of what
to do. It is just a matter of adjusting the pressure so you are not left holding the tail while your mouth is full
of bony fish. The trick is to bite down gently but firmly right where your finger is holding the tail and then
pull it slowly through. It may take a couple tries but with practice you will become an expert.
The way the pros do it is to grasp the sardine by the tail and tear it exactly
in half. The bone will seperate from one side, leaving you a little mini-filet. Then you have to get the bone out
of the other side which you can do by pulling it out or going to the fork method whch is to lay the fish down and using a knife or the edge
of your fork, starting at the base of the tail scrape along the spine and separate it from the meat. Then turn
the fish over and do the other side. You will need to be holding down the tail with your thumb or the whole fish
may end up in your neighbors plate or ear. This can also be done by hand but you will need extra napkins. My method, which I am quite proud of, is actually a combination of
the Tom and Jerry and the fork method where you substitute the tines of the fork for your teeth. In other words
run the fish through the tines of the fork (starting at the tail as always). The end result will be two filets
of sardeles on one side and the fish skeleton on the other. Like anything these methods take practice so don't become frustrated if you don't attain perefection on your first few tries. But if you make it a point to eat sardeles pastes and drink ouzo every day by the time you are ready to go into rehab you will be adept at it. If you don't drink ouzo you will be happy to know sardeles pastes can also be eaten as a meal. My friend Peter Poulides
is a non-ouzo drinking sardeles pastes lover who became addicted to them at first bite. But ouzo and sardeles pastes
certainly compliment each other and in my opinion there is no better meze when they are in season. 
Because of the high oil content of sardines , they are perhaps the bestfish to eat salted and raw, whether in a can or fresh and if you eat them every day you can toss that bottle of Omega 3 fatty acids that you have to keep in the fridge. There are other healthy raw fish in the same catagory including anchovies or anchooyes, well known and popular in Lesvos and the rest of the world. Sometimes whenyou order them in a restaurant or cafeneon they will be canned which is fine but you should try the fresh ones. They usually call them gavros marinatos when they are fresh. Also a kind of mackeral, called scoumbri is served, sometimes
out of cans and sometimes done on the premises. The canned stuff makes a great gift and is available not only in
food markets but in gift and tourist shops too. This pretty much has to be eaten with ouzo. It looks delicious when you buy it but its one of those things that tastes better the more you drink and tastes awful if you don't. Much better is Lakerda, (photo) a variety of small tuna that is available in some restaurants and this is generally
made in the restaurant or at home. Chances are good that no matter where you go in Lesvos, even the most remote taverna will
have one kind of pastes or another. On other islands and in Athens chances are any raw fish will be canned.
As for buying sardeles pastes to keep in your room or carry around
with you to give as gifts to your friends or favorite cafeneon owner, you can sometimes find them in the market
in Mytilini town at a fish store around the corner from the Mattis Ouzo shop. In Kaloni there are several fishermen
who sell it from their homes. Usually the procedure is to meet with the fisherman and order some for the next day,
or whenever you can make it back to the village. I buy mine from a fisherman named Panayotis and his hard bargaining
mother. They have a house on the main beach road and you can find him through Fiona at Tsalis rent a car on the
beach road. You can also ask the master boat builder Panayotis Psaradelis who along with building and maintaining
the sardine fleet at Kaloni, sells sardeles pastes from his workshop next to the Medusa restaurant. The Medusa
Restaurant will sell them to you if they have enough. That is where i get them now and then bring them to Aunt Aglaia in the village of Xidera, Lesvos and when she is done with them they look like this photo.
To spend a whole page or two writing about sardines and not mention other dishes
besides pastes would make this guide incomplete and leave the reader unaware of what I think is the best fish dish
and culinary delight on the face of the planet. Yes, better then the poison dart fish of Japan, better then Maine
lobster and perhaps even better then barbounia (red mullet). I am talking about fresh grilled sardines, seasoned
with oil, lemon and oregano. When sardines are in season they are available almost anywhere. For the best restaurants
serving them grilled, fried (also delicious) or sardeles pastes, go to my |
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